The show has been on the bubble for a little while, and I can postulate the CW's motives for renewal. First, it gives the opportunity to build a name for the show (which is a nice Buffy the Vampire Slayercombination of fantasy and humor). Second, it cuts some slack for the show with regard to any possible developmental interference the writer's strike may have had on it.

The show will return for 13 episodes in the mid-season and will likely run alongside the CW's other fantasy suspense series Supernatural after Smallville finishes its run.

The show has made great strides since its Kevin Smith-directed premiere and really shows promise. The still-struggling CW could use as many hits as possible. It's a good thing that the network is pursuing shows with some degree of sophistication and not abandoning them for mindless drivel (coughcoughrealityTVcoughcough) in the pursuit of cheap ratings.

I think Reaper is damn lucky. It followed the pattern that so many new shows do: the pilot is great, but then the quality dips while the show struggles to find its groove. People start tuning out. Then, by the time the show starts to get better, nobody's watching it and the ratings are crap. This has happened so many times before, and usually the show gets canceled, leaving all the people who stuck with it screaming.

Reaper hit that same bad patch last fall, where the show wasn't living up to the promise of the pilot. But then they really hit their stride, and all the episodes this year have gotten better and better. I don't think the strike hurt them at all; if anything, it reenergized the writing staff to get them out of their slump. And it also might have given the show a second chance among viewers, with people who tuned out last fall deciding to give it another shot after the long break. Now they've got just barely enough momentum to carry them into the second season. They need to make sure those first few episodes are just fantastic, because that will be their third chance to bring viewers in, and that's something that many shows don't get. Reaper is good enough to last five or six seasons; let's just hope the audience tunes back in after eight months off the air.

YAY! CRAP! YAY! CRAP! YAY RENEWAL! CRAP 13 EPISODE MID-SEASON ORDER. The fans will stick around that long but will those just joining the show stick around after another long momentum killing break? JERICHO, anyone??

Yeah, it's definitely a good-news, bad-news situation, but I'll revel in the good-news half of that. Maybe something the CW has for next season will tank early and we'll get an early start for Reaper with an order for extra episodes.